Tag: Atari

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GIF GJ is a Frankenstein’s monster of millennial internet culture

I think it’s time we accept that the GIF has become our symbol for this moment in the digital age. Fleeting, repetitive, ephemeral and yet always the same, the GIF captures the essence of a generation built on the internet: a never-ending loop of recycled information spreading on and on and on, ad infinitum. Giphy’s GIF GJ feels like the chaotic logical conclusion to millennial remix culture. Deriving from the cult of the mashup, GIF GJ combines digital DJing with GIFs by replacing a musical playlist with a soundboard of animated graphics. According to Giphy, the software is a call…
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Never forget the surreal delight of Chuck E. Cheese with these old photographs

It was around 7 p.m. on a Sunday night when a mob of raucous adults turned violent at the local Chuck E. Cheese in Parma, Ohio. A woman attending a birthday party there complained that the photo booth wasn’t working. When the manager told her she would have to wait, one of the men from the party followed him into the kitchen where he then allegedly threatened to kill him. A brawl ensued as other employees and party-goers joined in. This is the kind of story that’s come to define how people think of the once flourishing family arcade chain.…
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Let’s Play: The Shining pays homage to the horror film’s most intense scenes

Fans of Stanley Kubrick’s cinematic adaptation of Stephen King’s horror-drama The Shining have obsessed over the finer details for years. You don’t have to search for long to find some of the wilder theories. There’s an hour-long documentary called “The Shining Code” about how people have decoded messages in the film. They believe that hidden in the mise-en-scene are signs that Kubrick is trying to tell the viewer that the original moon landing was faked. That’s only the start of it. So it stands to reason that a videogame adaptation of The Shining should at least attempt to honor the…
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This week’s Playlist pick: Sound System II

Sign up to receive each week’s Playlist e-mail here! Also check out our full, interactive Playlist section. SOUND SYSTEM II (BROWSER)  BY PIPPIN BARR  Music and videogames go together like peanut butter and jelly: the visceral experience of play magnified by an equally sensorial accompaniment. In Sound System II, Pippin Barr continues to explore the interconnected relationship between play and music, this time through a modified version of Atari’s Breakout. The player’s interactions with the ball and bricks cascade into a scintillating soundscape.The longer you can stay alive, the more room you give your funky tune to breath. Sound System II is the ultimate marriage between music and play, rendering your skill an instrument and the beat a personal metronome egging…
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The swanky Atari game Kayne would play

The most upscale game of Breakout ever has been spotted at Louis Vuitton’s online shop. This is totally the way to play Atari while drinking rosé and sunbathing on yachts. The game is part of their campaign to promote their line of pricy, checkered-patterned, calfskin iPhone and iPad cases, in tandem with a cool, posh stop-motion advertisment inspired by retro games. Sure, it’s just your standard game of Breakout with all the ball-bouncing and power-ups; but it’s also Breakout played with fine leather goods standing in for the paddle and blocks, which makes it worth ten times as much. Right? Not so…